When I go to work, I try and have a lunch made everyday. Not only does this help save money, but it also is a great way to know exactly what I’m putting into my body. The hard part about eating out is that we don’t know how they are preparing the food. I make it a point to make lunches everyday, even if my office has a catered lunch – because hey better be safe than sorry!

I wanted to share one of my lunch recipes my boyfriend and I make a few times a week. It’s super easy, healthy and it will keep you feeling full.Ingredients (serving for 1)

!/4 Garbanzo beans

1/4 Black beans

1/4 Corn

Carrots

Celery

Green onions

Peppers (Red, yellow, green)

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Quinoa or barley

Optional

Red Cabbage

Radishes

Pineapple

We always make sure our fridge is stocked with lots of vegetables. Some essentials we always have are carrots, celery, lettuce, green onions and peppers. Then depending on what mood we are in when we shop we alternate between things like red cabbage or radishes or maybe even some pineapple. This is a great way to change it up!

So to start you want to boil either quinoa or barley. I base the serving size based on if I worked out in the AM or not. If I did workout, I usually do 1 1/2 – 2 servings for myself. If I didn’t workout I just stick with one serving. When you are making the quinoa/barley you can make it more flavor filled by putting some cumin or curry powder in the pot. This is a great way to add in some extra flavor. Just throw some powders or spices into the pot when you put the pot onto boil. Mix it in so the powder is distributed evenly.

While the quinoa/barley is cooking, start chopping up some vegetables you can eat raw. As mentioned, we usually go with carrots, celery, green onion and peppers with a few random vegetables every week. This week my boyfriend started adding in some sliced pineapples which surprisingly tastes delicious!

Grab yourself a tupperware and lay a few pieces of lettuce down. This is an easy way to get more greens into your system! Then we usually put some garbanzo beans, corn, and chickpeas on top of the lettuce. Then throw your raw chopped vegetables on top. You want to put a bit of olive oil with some salt and pepper on this bit and mix it around. This will give the lettuce and vegetables some flavor and also will prevent dry lettuce. (bleh)Once the quinoa/barley is done, strain it and put it on top of the salad. Then mix in some more olive oil and salt and pepper.

Once you mix it all together it really makes for a great lunch! I put mine in the fridge at work and don’t heat it up. The barley and quinoa actually taste really great cold so I don’t fuss with it too much.